https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1B6LrOmNsg
i decided this is the year i finally get into Echo & the Bunnymen. they are a band i have always liked and now i am listening to their albums in full for the first time. "Porcupine" is so great. i wish i had that voice, his vibrato is so glorious. this is some great stuff!
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 26 April 2017 15:56 (seven years ago) link
The break and build up to Shankar's violin in Heads Will Roll is the best damn thing.
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 26 April 2017 16:25 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veRBiHeUTp8
this video rules
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 26 April 2017 16:26 (seven years ago) link
porcupine's my favorite, one of the all-time guitar LPs for me and an apex of that post-punk snake charmer vibe that so many bands of the decade visited but seldom like THIS.
when i was 15 and would buy things i saw written on other people's leather jackets, and was also a sucker for weird band names, I bought a cassette of Porcupine with my paper route money at Har Mar Mall and put it in my walkman -- i have the most vivid memory of walking through the arcade there as The Cutter came into my head, what a holy shit moment.
― gimmesomehawnz (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 26 April 2017 16:29 (seven years ago) link
Classic classic classic classic - Echo & the Bunnymen are my all-time favourite band and I love everything they did. I'm always thinking that while I claim Ocean Rain is the greatest album of all time, the real answer might secretly be Porcupine.The first four albums are the undenyable perfect classics, but IMO all other albums have plenty of amazing stuff on them too.
I have met Ian McCulloch several times and he's always been super nice to me. My greatest experience was when he toured his solo album Slideling and I caught him after the show. I told him how much I loved 'Kansas' from that album and he realized it was one of the few he hadn't played - so he sang the first verse and the chorus to me, on the spot.
― Valentijn, Wednesday, 26 April 2017 17:43 (seven years ago) link
Seeing them tomorrow night with the Violent Femmes which is a very weird bill to me but I like both so hey. I can't wait.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Friday, 14 July 2017 17:22 (six years ago) link
Ooh jealous!
I super regret not going to the Ocean Rain at Radio City Music Hall show a decade or so ago
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Friday, 14 July 2017 17:24 (six years ago) link
xp - my friend Ava is opening that show! Wish I was on the East Coast to see the whole thing.
― sarahell, Friday, 14 July 2017 18:56 (six years ago) link
Oh, that's cool! Will certainly let you know how it is. My best friend from college (who now lives in LA) is going to be in town and coming with me and earlier today I realized that while I've seen her lots since we were at NYU, this will be the fist show we've seen together in 18 years which is crazy and now I feel very old.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Friday, 14 July 2017 19:29 (six years ago) link
loved the use of jimmy brown in i don't feel at home in the world, what a track
― kolakube (Ross), Wednesday, 10 January 2018 04:50 (six years ago) link
Two different trails on uk TV have used bunnymen tracks in the past month. It's like it's a thing now.
(Second season of French drama on bbc4 used a nouvelle vague version of all my colours, and that thing about the history of a Liverpudlian house is using killing moon)
― koogs, Wednesday, 10 January 2018 06:29 (six years ago) link
I agree with Not Jon upthread, Porcupine for the sound, esp. Heads Will Roll, but Ocean Rain for the songs
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Friday, 12 January 2018 12:11 (six years ago) link
All I need imo.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 26 May 2020 02:49 (three years ago) link
What a fine idea!
https://www.thirdmanbooks.com/catalog/bunnyman
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 1 April 2021 03:11 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t620DfthImk
― Maresn3st, Saturday, 24 April 2021 14:31 (three years ago) link
The first half of Will's book is not good.
Maybe I've read too many of these memoirs recently but I'm always impatient to get past:
What did the parents do?/who was musical in the family?/The Beatles/Bowie on TOTP/Sex Pistols/Ramones first album/older brother into Genesis and Henry Cow/OGWT/inadequate parent's stereo system/wasn't growing up in the suburbs during the 60s-70s shite?/school days (waaaaay much of this in Will's book)/crap clothes/first instrument/first girlfriend/college/university/dole/hash/cheap beer/getting a kicking/street fashion...
All that part eats up the entire first half of the book, the second half, much better. Starting with Eric's, but I didn't realise that this is just Vol.1 and it stops with Pete DeFreitas joining the band, booooo
― Maresn3st, Monday, 26 July 2021 16:52 (two years ago) link
A bit like Brett Anderson's first book, then.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 July 2021 17:33 (two years ago) link
want to read it just to see how it compares narratively to Julian Cope's Head On
― mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Monday, 26 July 2021 18:09 (two years ago) link
It's much less colourful or interesting, but probably more accurate. Pretty much the same tone as Stephen Morris or Peter Hook's bios.
― Maresn3st, Monday, 26 July 2021 19:27 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SeLNifXhuc
― Maresn3st, Thursday, 30 September 2021 20:32 (two years ago) link
^ La Via Luonge | featuring Echo & the Bunnymen | A film by Bill Butt | Nacho Restoration | 1981
i know the name "La Via Luonge" as a solo cd of will's, on ochre records, which had some connection to the local record shop in cheltenham, so they'd stock all the Glide stuff. but have never seen the above.
https://www.discogs.com/Will-Sergeant-Weird-As-Fish-Le-Via-Luonge/release/900378
― koogs, Thursday, 30 September 2021 20:43 (two years ago) link
love the krautrock roadtrip vibe of that film, haven't seen it for years
― primate marmite (NickB), Thursday, 30 September 2021 21:01 (two years ago) link
i think i like the instrumental music from it more than i like most of their records tbh
― primate marmite (NickB), Thursday, 30 September 2021 21:02 (two years ago) link
Not sure which is considered the best Bunnymen thread but they're sounding incredible tonight (playing old stuff/random YouTube stuff after clicking through on someone else's Tweet earlier).
― djh, Tuesday, 12 April 2022 20:57 (two years ago) link
Will Sergeant is about to do a City Lights THird Man books webinar alongside Bobby Gillespie. Not sure if there is a Facebook feed but there has been before.
― Stevolende, Saturday, 23 April 2022 19:04 (two years ago) link
I saw Ian McCulloch in concert once, about 20 years ago. I thought it would make me appreciate Echo and the Bunnymen, but it didn't. I do like Seven Seas, though. That song seems very romantic in a Morrissey kind of way—very operatic (probably because it sounds like 'O sole mio).
There are a slew of alternative acts from that 80s that all had these Mixolydian songs that all blend together in my mind: The Cutter, Lips Like Sugar and many others by Echo and the Bunnymen; also Primitive Painters by Felt (who I otherwise like), She Sells Sanctuary by the Cult, Uncertain Smile by The The, and I'm sure there are others I can't think of right now. I was an adolescent when the 90s alternative thing hit, and sometimes a DJ would come on the radio and start playing records from when he was in college, and it would always be one of these records. I have a bad association with them but I don't exactly know why.
― Publicradio (3×5), Saturday, 23 April 2022 21:09 (two years ago) link
Speaking of Seven Seas: is this the origin of the Tortoise track title "The Taut and Tame"? Ian McCulloch says this in the lyric. Or, is this a phrase or reference to something else that I'm just not familiar with?
― Publicradio (3×5), Sunday, 24 April 2022 03:35 (two years ago) link
these Mixolydian songs that all blend together in my mind
That's unusual! Do you have problems with ♭VII chords outside of 80s alternative?
is this the origin of the Tortoise track title "The Taut and the Tame"
That was my assumption.
― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 24 April 2022 03:50 (two years ago) link
I thought those City Lights talks turned up on youtube shortly afterwards. Not seeing it appear yet but it is Will Sargeant, Bobby Gillespie and a couple of other talking heads talking together about recently published memoirs.Goad to hear that Sargeant already has the next section underway since the first book ends before the first lp. Lasted about an hour and 10 minutes.
― Stevolende, Sunday, 24 April 2022 11:45 (two years ago) link
Do you have problems with ♭VII chords outside of 80s alternative?
Nope, it's mostly just in that context. It doesn't bother me in Krautrock, or 60s Psychedelia, or Post Rock, or in an Indian Raga. But if I hear "Perfect Skin" by Lloyd Cole it makes me cringe a little.
― Publicradio (3×5), Sunday, 24 April 2022 17:24 (two years ago) link
Buh buh bite the nose off and make it the most of
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, 26 April 2022 00:19 (two years ago) link
SWUNG FROM A CHANDALIER
― Jaime Pressly and America (f. hazel), Tuesday, 26 April 2022 03:35 (two years ago) link
Couldn't cut the muuuuuustarrrrrd
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, 26 April 2022 04:02 (two years ago) link
Rolo McGinty remembers Pete de Freitas on the anniversary of his passing.
https://www.facebook.com/rolo.mcginty/posts/pfbid02Lx9ozR8uVgYLX6bAKKzaVvD5vsLTGCwmqqhLrQCr2s8tnpcAknkAfPTuVmay9R7xl
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 June 2022 23:30 (one year ago) link
Well well. Per Echo's social media:
We have just posted what I think is maybe the greatest live film of Echo and the Bunnymen over on our YouTube channel.Filmed live at Zeche Bochum, Germany, March the 5th 1983 during the Porcupine European Tour. Broadcasted by Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in the Rockpalast TV programme. 1 Going Up2 With A Hip 3 Gods Will Be Gods4 Show Of Strength 5 Zimbo (All My Colours)6 The Cutter 7 Rescue 8 My White Devil 9 Porcupine 10 Crocodiles 11 All That Jazz 12 The Back Of Love 13 Heads Will Roll 14 Heaven Up Here 15 Over The Wall 16 Do It Clean 17 Villiers Terrace 18 No Dark Things 19 A Promise
1 Going Up2 With A Hip 3 Gods Will Be Gods4 Show Of Strength 5 Zimbo (All My Colours)6 The Cutter 7 Rescue 8 My White Devil 9 Porcupine 10 Crocodiles 11 All That Jazz 12 The Back Of Love 13 Heads Will Roll 14 Heaven Up Here 15 Over The Wall 16 Do It Clean 17 Villiers Terrace 18 No Dark Things 19 A Promise
And here it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5krHYQ6SxkM
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 16 October 2022 01:49 (one year ago) link
first part of will's biography is 99p on amazon uk this month
― koogs, Tuesday, 1 August 2023 19:45 (nine months ago) link
ian on sky arts' Great Songwriters this week (last week). very fidgety and rambling but always entertaining.
likes cryptic crosswords, doesn't get Only Connect though.
odd choice of songs though (killing moon, dancing horses, proud to fall, unstoppable force)
― koogs, Saturday, 19 August 2023 20:33 (eight months ago) link
Steinbeck et al, they just wrote novels, they don't have to sing them...
I think the second volume of Will's bio comes out very soon.
― MaresNest, Saturday, 19 August 2023 20:40 (eight months ago) link
The way Will describes the current dynamics of the band makes me feel sad, he comes across as quite enervated by the whole business.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FoIifB2Ylk
― MaresNest, Friday, 1 December 2023 11:45 (five months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1QFubPHyZc
― MaresNest, Thursday, 4 January 2024 17:27 (four months ago) link
i had that (glasto 85) as a bootleg, bought during my first week at university from a guy selling them in the students Union building. they do, iirc, it's all over now baby blue, she cracked, paint it black
(oh, track listing right there...)
― koogs, Thursday, 4 January 2024 19:06 (four months ago) link
the Crystal Days box has versions of those, and more, from Swedish radio. don't know if the glasto versions ever saw an official release.
― koogs, Thursday, 4 January 2024 19:09 (four months ago) link
I can't help it, that Peel Session song "No Hands" is the gothiest thing ever. Beautiful and amen. Listen to the bass. I'll never recover. That is absolutely the most beautifully goth thing I've ever heard. Oh my god, make it stop. That is going to fuck with my head all night.Too much goth. Too much.
― think you're a fookin' bat, eh? (Bimble), Saturday, February 7, 2009 6:25 AM (fifteen years ago)
bimble otm, but it's not too much. i just heard this song for the first time earlier this week, listening to the peel sessions collection from a few years back. when "no hands" came on i immediately tried to figure out which album it was from and how i had missed it before. but it's only on that session, i think, the january 1982 peel session, i think? it rules
― z_tbd, Saturday, 17 February 2024 23:04 (two months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSd36N5rBg8
― z_tbd, Saturday, 17 February 2024 23:05 (two months ago) link
I had that Glasto / Swedish radio bootleg, too -- so good!
― three of the doctor's valuable bats are now dead (broom air), Sunday, 18 February 2024 01:21 (two months ago) link
There's only one, pitifully short and tangential Wild Swans thread on ILM, but I thought it worth mentioning here that I'm halfway through Paul Simpson's memoir and it's pretty enjoyable so far.
― Maresn3st, Sunday, 18 February 2024 01:51 (two months ago) link